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Murch Elementary School

SK&A provided structural engineering services for the modernization and expansion of the historic two-story Murch Elementary School building, originally built in 1929. The renovated building and new addition is approximately 100,000 sf and serves a student body of 700 students.

The school’s renovations include updated classrooms, “pull-out” instruction spaces, a full-size gymnasium with stage, media center with “maker space,” laptop laboratory and small group instruction spaces, an administrative/welcome center, an art and kiln room, cafeteria, and a parking garage. The building is expected to achieve LEED for Schools Gold certification.

The project’s superstructure primarily consists of structural steel framing in combination with a limited area of cast-in-place concrete construction. Structural steel framing within the project includes composite steel, open web joists, and long-span roof construction. The project’s concrete construction is limited to the floor framing above the garage and plaza. The existing buildings were analyzed to support new mechanical equipment and provide large openings in the existing bearing walls at the connection between the old and new building.